You may have noticed that the amount of built-in iPhone memory indicated by the manufacturer does not correspond to the real one. So, with a declared capacity of 16 GB, in fact the latest iPhones are endowed with about 11 GB of memory. There is a simple explanation for this phenomenon.
First of all, it is worth referring to the notes on the official Apple website, which indicate that by 1 GB Cupertinians mean 1 billion bytes.
That is, 16 GB contains 16 billion bytes. As you know, 1 KB is equal to 1024 bytes, respectively, 16 "apple" GB contain 15 625 000 KB. 1 MB is equal to 1024 KB, so we divide 15 625 000 by 1024 and get 15 259 MB. 1 GB contains 1024 MB, so again we divide the previously obtained number of megabytes by 1024 and get 14.9 GB.
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That is, out of the 16 GB indicated on the box, in fact, the user receives only 14.9 GB.
However, if you look at the information displayed, for example, in the settings of the iPhone 6 with iOS 9.0.2 (Settings -> General -> About device), then you can see not 14.9 GB, but 11.9 GB. Where could another 3 GB go?
Another example: iPhone 6s 128 GB - available to the user…. 114 GB. Minus 14 (!!!) GB?
Let's go back to Apple's notes on the official website, they indicate that after formatting, the actual capacity of the gadget becomes less than the declared one.
In short, this means that in the process of flashing a mobile device with an operating system, memory is divided into two categories: for the root system and for storing user data and content. The first is for files on the mobile platform, the second is for files that the user will create or upload. So in the settings, the user is presented with only the second option, without "noticing" the memory allocated for the operating system.
However, at this stage, a misunderstanding may arise. The fact is that different iPhones with different OS versions have significantly different root partition capacity. This is mainly due to two things: each new firmware version, as a rule, weighs more than the previous one; on newer models, the same platform version takes up more space than on older ones.
For example, in 2009, on the iPhone 3Gs 16 GB, the user had more than 14 GB of free space available (the firmware weighed 300 MB), while on the iPhone 6s Plus in 2015, it was only about 11 GB (the firmware file weighs 2.4 GB).
See also:
- iMazing - File Manager is a great alternative to iTunes.
- Find Friends, or how to view the location of friends on iPhone and iPad.
- How to unlink iPhone or iPad from iCloud (remove from Apple ID)?
- How to choose apps to back up to iCloud on iPhone and iPad.
